Challenges and Solutions to Adaptive Computing and Seamless Mobility over Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the rapid evolution of commercially available mobile computing environments. This has given rise to the presence of several viable, but non-interoperable wireless networking technologies – each targeting a niche mobility environment and providing a distinct quality of service. The lack of a uniform set of standards, the heterogeneity in the quality of service, and the diversity in the networking approaches makes it difficult for a mobile computing environment to provide seamless mobility across different wireless networks. Besides, inter-network mobility will typically be accompanied by a change in the quality of service. The application and the environment need to collaboratively adapt their communication and data management strategies in order to gracefully react to the dynamic operating conditions. This paper presents the important challenges in building a mobile computing environment which provides seamless mobility and adaptive computing over commercially available wireless networks. It suggests possible solutions to the challenges, and describes an ongoing research effort to build such a mobile computing environment.